Microsoft comes up bolstering its own words saying that Windows 10 is going to be its last operating system by pulling the support of operating system’s lifetime long toward 2026.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update was released last week. The company officially named it as 1607 and used the year and month label in the similar way Microsoft has been adopting so far. The company did refresh the operating system support lifecycle database giving hints of one year extension for Windows 10 Enterprise.

Windows 10 Enterprise has been built as the only SKU by the software company. SKU: Stock Keeping Unit is a static version that keeps going same throughout its lifespan. This version is designed for systems with new features of stability and prolonged existence.

Microsoft also last year released its first LTSB publicly which was thus known as 1507. Like other company’s products launched that time, 1507 was given support till October, 14, 2025. However, its 1607 is also based on the same design of a LTSB and the firm had already said they planned to label new upgrades as LTSB from time to time in order to help companies bring their systems up to date as per their requirements.

According to the latest reports, Microsoft will support the newest release which is based on 1607 till October, 13, 2026. It’s almost a 10-year time after its launch. Some other products like Windows 10 Pro remains wedded to support its life span that will be ending in 2025. The same goes for Windows 10 Home which is a consumer version. Both of these versions were refreshed by 1607. 

Microsoft by adding one year to Windows 10 Enterprise’ lifespan validates the prediction that Steve Kleynhans made in July 2015. Steve is a Gartner analyst who has been focusing on Microsoft and its products especially OSs. He had said in his interview that he had strong thoughts that Microsoft would have to reset the clock to begin with another 10-year of support to some of its operating systems. He also marked some type of stake on the floor. According to the speculation of Kleynhans, the product he was seeing on the stake would be a new LTSB.

The users of original LTSB are expected to receive further security updates till the end of 2025. Information Technology staffers would need to replace 1507 with 1607 to get patches for the extra 1-year. In addition, Microsoft who is advertising the newest operating system will be the last version of Windows based OS also gets a credibility to extend Window 10 support toward 2026. Though this was a phrase that technically doesn’t sound a logical statement, was destined to highlight “the software as a service” spin.

The company has provided a comprehensive narrative on the newest version of Windows as well as a detailed account of adding years to support the lifespan of Windows 10. Users can also see the dates of when different versions came out of mainstream support and when they dropped off the support list.

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